Run Into Nature’s Dawn, Iceland
SW Iceland, 2014-2018

The nature visitors gain access to in SW Iceland isn’t the proverbial wilderness, devoid of human installations and transformations.

From glossy brochures, to transatlantic flight routes, or round tours such as the “Golden Circle,” Icelandic nature is the product of a long sequence of transformations.

Since 2010, tourism in Iceland has been growing exponentially, surpassing the traditional industries of fishing and agriculture. 

Between 2014-2017, I photographed the vanishing frontier between nature and human infrastructure on the Reykjanes peninsula, where two thirds of the Icelandic population live, extending outward from Reykjavík.

I photographed what impeccable brochure pictures don’t show and yet, are made of: quarries, industrial areas, and new developments sprawling on lava fields. There, the price of “nature tourism” became tangible.

I’ve been there, and done that too.